Paul Mescal’s SNL debut sees star reinvent Gladiator II as Wicked musical

Paul Mescal made his Saturday Night Live debut on Saturday (7 December) and has made quite an impression while doing so.

The 28-year-old Irish actor starred as the lead in one of the most long-awaited sequels in recent years, Gladiator II. While the film opened to some mixed reviews, Mescal appears to have taken the feedback in good humour as he reprised his role for a comedy skit.

The Normal People star plays Lucious Verus Aurelius, the illegitimate offspring of Maximus Decimus Meridius (Russell Crowe in the original 2000 film Gladiator), and Lucilla, daughter of philosopher-king Marcus Aurelius, who is played by Connie Nielsen.

Mescal flaunted his singing skills as the spoof trailer for the musical version of the historical action epic opened. “Gladiator II is a hit earning over $300m worldwide, but then we saw the massive success of Moana 2 and Wicked. So after some rushed reshoots, Gladiator II is now a musical,” he said.

The actor sang through the parody song, “There’s no place like Rome”, as he flies away from the Colosseum on a broomstick at the end of the performance, wearing a witches hat. The trailer came complete with the “washed-out” aesthetic of the original. The ending was a nod to Cynthia Erivo’s rendition of “Defying Gravity” as Elphaba in Wicked.

Elsewhere in the episode, Mescal plays a pirate stripper surprising a bachelorette party, and a rebellious son shocking his parents with a new ear piercing.

The All of us Strangers star received widespread acclaim for his hosting skills on social media.

“Cast Paul Mescal in a musical now,” one fan demanded.

“Paul Mescal singing in Gladiator II: The Musical is already more legendary than the sequel ever could be,” said another in a back-handed compliment.

“Paul Mescal absolutely crushed it on his SNL debut! Can’t wait to see more of him!” commented another on X/Twitter.

“Not a comedian but he made it funnier than it’s been in years,” said another.

There were some attempts to create a “Barbenheimer”-type atmosphere around the release of Gladiator II, which coincided with that of Wicked. Dubbed “Glicked”, the unofficial mashup failed to match last year’s blockbuster mash-up, which saw Barbie and Oppenheimer widely paired up for an unofficial double bill.

Some have claimed that the reason for this is that people are becoming tired of the attempts to reinvent Barbenheimer. David Hancock, a media and entertainment analyst at Omdia, told The Guardian: “It isn’t a double bill. Gladdington was also tried, and didn’t set alight, because it seemed forced and derivative.”